The Good Old Days

This gallery traces the Grigsby family history from 1872 through family photos and information gathered together by William (Bill) Redman Grigsby for his Grandsons, Ryan and Jack. Photographs were cleaned up by Murry Grigsby, Bill's brother. Most of the photos came from Mom and Dad as did life itself. Other photographs were generously contributed by Phyllis and Martin Jones, Janie Root Eddy, Kathleen Staten Thompson, Donald Grigsby, Bud Miers, Terry Miers, Holly Kottenstette Fritz, Jim Miers, Norman Spring, Connie Hester, Lynnette Herring Fleming, Verna Mae Bechtel Staten, Rebecca Rombach Copple, Mrs. Emerson Carey II and Kiki Tomson. We hope you enjoy seeing and reading a small bit of the Grigsby history.

1943 - Bruce Graves Jr. According to Bruce Graves Jr.'s military record he enlisted on April 17, 1943 when he was about 19 years old and had finished 4 years of high school. This photograph was taken sometime after April 1943 during WWII in his air force uniform. He would soon be headed for North Africa. Bill had thought that Bruce Jr. had been stationed in England and had flown over France and Germany and had lost his life in that theater of World War II. However, our cousin, Donald Grigsby, told Bill that the story he had heard was that Bruce was flying out of North Africa with the 15th Air Force. According to Donald, Bruce had accumulated enough missions to end his deployment. However. there was a shortage of crew members for some raids and he volunteered as a gunner with a different crew. Unfortunately, Bruce's aircraft was downed on Mt. Belepeit near Chiusaforte, Italy and he died on this mission in 1944. The European war ended on May 7, 1945. Bruce gave his life for the cause of freedom in Italy. His body was eventually recovered and returned to the United States where he was buried in the Mansfield, Ohio cemetery with his father and mother.

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Jerry Whiting

on Jan 07

Regarding Bruce Graves, he was actually flying out of Italy with the 485th Bomb Group, when he went down in February 1945. The base was near Venosa, Italy. Local residents in the region wrote a book about the crew and the mission. I've been to the region of the crash site while researching a different book I wrote about the 485th Bomb Group. It's extremely rugged and mountainous. (I'm the 485th historian). Next month (Febuary 2012) my Italian friends are going to place a plaque at he crash site, honoring the men who lost their lives. What a nice way to honor your family with this gallery. Jerry Whiting EAJWWhiting@aol.com www.jwhitingwarstories.com

Guest

on Jul 31

Great photo and story. But on a factual note, the war in Europe ended in May of 1945 not in May of 1944.